High as Hope

This baroque pop masterpiece finds hope in vulnerability and connection.

“Hold on to each other,” Florence Welch pleads again and again on “June,” the intense album opener that was written after the Pulse Nightclub shooting. If there’s one theme of High as Hope, it might be this: we find hope through vulnerability and connection. This thread connects the album from a powerful confession of a teenage eating disorder (“Hunger”) to exploration of family past (“Grace,” “The End of Love”) to reflections on lessons learned about love’s simplicity (“No Choir”). The instrumentation and musical style is similarly vulnerable, a more reserved and simple affair than previous Florence + the Machine albums; at the same time, High as Hope still has the elegant orchestral pop sound that the act has become known for. A lyrical and musical warmth permeates High as Hope, making it the perfect album for trying times.